Old Photograph Inverlochy Castle Scotland

Old photograph of Inverlochy Castle near Fort William, Scotland. Inverlochy Castle was built between 1270 and 1280 by John " the Black " Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Lochaber, and chief of the Clan Comyn. It may have been built on the site of an earlier Pictish fortification and settlement, which the historian Hector Boece, born 1465, died 1536, records as a " city " that was destroyed by Vikings. When Robert the Bruce succeeded to the Scottish throne in 1306, the Comyns, his rivals for the crown, were dispossessed, and the castle was unoccupied for a time. In 1431, clansmen of Alexander MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, defeated King James I's larger army in the first Battle of Inverlochy, fought close by the castle. It came under control of the Clan Cameron until 1501. In 1505, the partially ruined castle was granted to Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly, who was charged by King James IV with repairing the castle for use as a Royal garrison. His brother William Gordon, Laird of Gight, became master of Inverlochy, and was slain commanding the Camerons at the Battle of Flodden. In 1645, the castle served as a stopping off point for the royalist army of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose during his campaign against the Covenanter forces of the Marquess of Argyll. This culminated in a victory for the royalists in the second Battle of Inverlochy, on February 2, 1645. In the 19th century, the estate was bought by James Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger, who built a Scottish baronial style mansion to the north-west, which is now the Inverlochy Castle Hotel. Minor enhancements, including the restoration of loops and battlements, were carried out by Lord Abinger in advance of the visit of Queen Victoria in 1873.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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About Me

I was born in Buckhaven, on the East coast of the Kingdom of Fife, and raised in the old fishing villages of Cellardyke and Anstruther in the East Neuk of Fife. For the past 12 years I have been organizing and guiding unique small group tours of Scotland.